Thursday, December 13, 2012

Google boss Eric Schmidt takes a dim view of capitalism

"I am very proud of the structure that we set up. . . . It’s called capitalism."

Let's see, now.

Multinational tax avoidance via tax havens corrupts markets, tilting the playing field in their favour.

Tax avoidance helps multinationals out-compete their smaller, more
locally based rivals on a factor - tax - that has nothing to do with
genuine economic efficiency and productivity - and everything to do with
extracting wealth from other taxpayers elsewhere, including their
competitors.

Tax avoidance is effectively a way of extracting tax subsidies that aren't available to others.

As a result of the killing of smaller firms, competition is reduced
in the market, and the big become bigger. Oligipolistic and monopolistic
market power, and the economic rents that flow from them, increase.
Consumers pay more.

As a result of all this, inequality is increased, which we now know poses long-term threats to economic stability.

Tax avoidance helps multinational firms free ride off societies,
helping them take the tax-funded benefits from society then getting
others elsewhere to pay for it.

Tax avoidance is particularly hard on developing countries, which
don't have the skilled technicians able to counter the devious offshore
arguments of the armies of tax advisers that multinationals employ.

Navigating the complex seas of tax avoidance costs a fortune in fees
paid to these same highly educated tax advisers and lawyers and the
whole private infrastructure of tax havens. This is a huge cost to
society: efficiency goes out the window.

Eric Schmidt is proud of all of this. This is just capitalism, he says.

He must take an incredibly dim view of it. Or he is very confused about it all.

Or, most likely, both.

Schmidt may try to argue that the headline on this blog is misleading. Look at the logic of it, though, and it clearly isn't.

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About Me

The Tax Justice Network (TJN) is an international, non-aligned network of researchers and activists with a shared concern about the harmful impacts of tax avoidance, tax competition and tax havens.
www.taxjustice.net